Evernight continues

Stargazer by Claudia Gray

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
After reading Evernight last year, I've been impatiently awaiting the arrival of Stargazer. My patience was certainly rewarded.



It's hard to write about this novel in a way that does not spoil the surprises of the first. I won't even try to summarize the plot, because I do really hate spoilers of that magnitude. And those surprises are part of what makes Evernight work so very well.



It's enough, I think, to say that this book complicates the story in several meaningful ways. Bianca has always been too trusting, and the cynics around her have not been afraid to tell her that--unless, of course, they want her to believe their own lies. Throughout this novel, Bianca inches closer and closer to the truth, slowly making connections. The most frustrating part of this book is the speed; I can't help but wish that Bianca were a little bit of a faster thinker. However, so much of her understanding is also a part of her coming of age, of her maturation process. She's becoming an adult, with all that means, and as the levels of lies around her are slowly stripped away, she's left with several unwelcome choices.



I'm not sure that I liked this book quite as well as the first. Whatever happens in the third (and is that the final one?) book will likely decide what I think about the series as a whole. I do know that I will be anxiously awaiting the new one next year.


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Werewolves, oh my

The Better to Hold You by Alisa Sheckley

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I saw this book mentioned in Romantic Times, and the fact that Gaiman had blurbed it made me want to check it out.



I was not disappointed.



The cover copy makes the novel seem predictible, even rather standard, but it does not do a good job of actually representing the novel. There's much more here than the cover hints, and the portrait of the marriage between Hunter and Abra is both convincing and suffocating. There's more depth here than one usually finds in mass market romances. I'm rather surprised the publisher didn't put it out as a trade first.


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